... and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty.

Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never will. Show me the exact amount of wrong and injustices that are visited upon a person and I will show you the exact amount of words endured by these people.

I do not think much of the good luck theory of self-made men. It is worth but little attention and has no practical value.

What is possible for me is possible for you.

Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity.

Every one of us should be ashamed to be free while his brother is a slave.